


Beth's Heaven.

by EmmyGreene



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heaven, Other, Watching
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-20 21:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10670697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmyGreene/pseuds/EmmyGreene
Summary: Very loosely inspired by the lovely bones. In the prison, Beth felt it was her job to watch over her family, a duty she's happy to continue from afar.





	1. My name was Greene, like the colour.

**Author's Note:**

> Aaah I sort of hate myself for writing this because I hate that Beth is dead but I haven't been able to shake it from my mind so here goes... very loosely based on 'The Lovely Bones' which I haven't actually read in years ( because I cry too much!) but I always loved the way heaven was presented in that text/film and wanted to explore that through another character. 
> 
> Also, not American, will probably slip up with spelling and colloquialisms. It's very hard to drop letters and have words look wrong to me! ( Favourite vs favorite for example!).

_My name was Greene, like the colour. Beth Greene, I was 18 years old when I was murdered. Not that it matters anymore, most of the young people are dead and most weren’t as lucky as me. My death was quick and clean, almost painless. I knew it was coming for just a second, I felt the piercing heat and then suddenly I was free from my body, running towards something. I was foolish. Unlike many others, my death could have been avoided, it should have been. I cared too much about to many people. I couldn’t walk away without Noah, so I didn’t walk away at all. That’s why I’m trapped here, in the inbetween, because I can’t let go of those I loved on earth._

It had only been three days and Beth was still learning the rules, stretching the levels of her heaven. It wasn’t a real heaven, she wasn’t ready for that. That’s why she couldn’t find her father, he’d been ready, maybe because his death took longer and he had those extra few moments to prepare, maybe because he’d had greater faith than her, maybe because he saw his two girls together and knew they’d have each other? Beth was different from her father. All those months at the prison she’d felt it was her job to watch out for her family and that continued now, from afar. She wasn’t alone in her heaven. She was greeted by Mika and Lizzie, they wouldn’t talk about how they ended up there but they ran to her. It made her smile to see them act like little kids again. Beth had asked after their parents but they hadn’t seen them. It was Mika who understood why they were still here ‘We have to wait until we know Carol and Judith are safe’ she’d said simply. Bob was there too but only sometimes, heaven was strange like that. It could be whatever you wanted it to be and sometimes he went elsewhere. The girls mostly stuck together in a heaven that resembled their prison only softer and cleaner.  From her new vantage point Beth could still look over her family but for now their grief consumed them and they couldn’t feel her. She’d spent a day screaming, trying to make Daryl listen but he couldn’t. Instead he’d sat silent, crying in the back of a car and then buried her body beneath a peach tree. They prayed over her and she was screaming ‘That’s not me, please, please stop crying, I’m not there, I love you, please, please don’t be sad.’ Mika came and sat beside her ‘They can’t hear you, we’ve tried’.  


	2. There's a Guitar in my Heaven.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth eases Tyrese into their heaven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I think I've figured out exactly where this is going now and I'm going to keep it short but sweet, 6 chapters in total and short ones at that.

_There’s a guitar in my heaven and a piano too. The more I think to ask for, the more I notice things appearing. My heaven is still small. The size of the world overwhelmed me, especially when I was separated from my people. I keep my heaven small. We sleep in a prison. It’s not a real prison, not even our prison. It looks like it but the beds are comfortable, there isn’t any damp. The squeaking of other bunks doesn’t keep us awake at night. But the fear is still there. Not for ourselves but for those we left behind. I watch the people I love and I want things to get better for them. I wish I was still part of their lives. I watch._

Eventually the broke through, they managed to speak to someone on the other side. Tyrese was dying, they could see that and so they came down to him. At first he could only hear their voices. He imagined their images but it wasn’t them, not until right at the end. It wasn’t just his body that was dying by then but his soul as well. ‘I think that’s the important part’ Lizzie said ‘Nobody could reach us because it happened quickly and we didn’t know.’They reassured Tyrese as they slowly drove him in the car. That was his doing, he was in a car when he died so it made sense he'd replaced that reality with this, something familiar to ease him in. There was no joy at their reunion, how could there be when another one their side meant another life lost? They embraced him and reassured him, they explained what they could. 

'You can't see everything, you can't change anything' Beth told him, 'you can't understand why people do things. It's no different to watching your neighbors through a window really. Except you aren't watching strangers or acquaintances, you watch the people you love.'

 

'Can you see if there's anyone else left?'

'We've tried but we aren't really sure how it works. I think you have to know the people or the place. And its hard and we quickly realised, we didn't care. We're here because of unfinished business with certain people so we focus on them.' She said it so matter of fact. It was strange, she could still feel emotion, sometimes the grief was intense, but the default was a calm feeling she'd very seldom known on earth. 

After that first hour, Tyrese sat with Bob and watched his sister. Lizzie and Mika appeared and disappeared at whim, they were testing the limits and their imagination knew no bounds.  It was clear they were getting ready to move on, their investment in the world they left behind was slowly declining. They were, after all, still children.  Beth sat in her bunk and played music. She felt her arms aching to hold Judith’s perfect weight, she found her and itching to hold onto Daryl’s. She was surprised at how much sensation you could feel when your body was no longer a physical object. ‘Everything we see is imagined’ Lizzie said one day ‘that’s why we don’t have gunshot wounds’.

‘You were shot?’ Beth asked her.

‘By Carol’.

'Did you get bit?'

Lizzie shook her head and Beth didn't ask any more questions. 

She watched on as her family made plans, as they tried to start over again. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love any feedback, good or bad so please leave a comment below.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it, I'll try and update soon. I'd love it if you left a comment and let me know what you think :)


End file.
